The Death Of White Animals
For Doctor Michael Krasny, Ph. D.
Nach Paul Celan

“It is good that the freedom to acquire property is balanced by the freedom from want.
Better yet to see the freedom to develop all of one’s potential lifted from the common wish to the common law and heart.”

Standing on the edge
I am forced to step back
The melt of the border coerces me
To regress to drips of progress.

In my fingers I clutch
Photographs of animals,
Dead, how many years?
Which once brought tears
To the eyes of friends
Who cared about polar bears.

These Thalarctos Maritimus died
In weather, hot and dry,
Even though they were born
To hunt the floes
Of ice and snow for seals
Which linger still like slippery antiques.

First the thaw of ice,
Then the lack of food,
Followed by the loss of life:
When the more shrewd
Ate the mere shrewd.
I bare my own grasp when I see

That without the frozen support-structure,
White animals can not last.

-Don Hagelberg
© Copyright 2007 By Don Hagelberg
Appeared in New World Finn and Exit #13

Welcome to the mule.

Grace Unto You and Peace,
MrP.,

Thank you for your welcome.

Agape, kiitos, shalom, Xie xie, salaam ja namaste,

Don as "Tauno"

A fine piece of work, thoughtful and artful. I listen to the radio every day; there is much news of what might not be.

amo,

Peter

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